Hospitality New Zealand

The hospitality sector has been welcoming guests for centuries. What drives our restaurant, cafe, bar, venue, and accommodation operators is the care of those guests and the promotion of memorable experience and overall wellbeing. Recent postlockdown research backs that up.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said the social and mental wellbeing of the general population was negatively impacted as a direct result of the closure of hospitality venues during the Covid lockdowns, with a similar number saying after restrictions were lifted, they had a better appreciation for the contribution the sector brought to their own social and mental wellbeing. As well, nearly half agreed that socialising with friends and family outside the home once restrictions lifted had the biggest impact on their happiness.

They are the sort of numbers that confirm what the industry has known for a long time: it is key to the New Zealand social fabric.

It’s with that caring for guests and community in mind that Hospitality New Zealand has launched a course to ensure staff working where alcohol is served are trained in responsible service to support harm minimisation.

The Responsible Service of Alcohol Standards course is an industry-led initiative in which everyone in licensed premises – operators, managers, and servers – has a part to play.

It is part of host responsibility, which is integral to manaakitanga – respect and care for our guests and customers – and aims to minimise alcohol harm and help create safer drinking environments for communities and safer environments for staff by training and empowering staff in responsible sale and supply.

Minimising harm and providing safer environments for the sale and supply of alcohol is a priority for the industry, and as the industry peak body, Hospitality NZ is taking the lead with this essential training.

The course covers the duty of care and harm minimisation required under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, and includes the law around alcohol, host responsibilities, and the tools for carrying out those responsibilities.

It’s about raising the standard and making this best practice as developed by the industry, and it’s not because the Government, or the law, or lobby groups are telling us to this – it’s something we believe is needed. It’s also part of caring for our staff. A responsible host’s duty is to look after everyone – and that includes your staff.

By providing standardised training, Hospitality NZ is supporting operator businesses to raise the bar, working together on building a skilled workforce.

It’s this development of skills and acknowledgment of the value of minimising harm that will contribute to a capable and engaged workforce that is invested in community wellbeing.

To support its accessibility, the course is available online as a series of video lessons on Hospitality NZ’s e-learning platform Typsy. This ensures standardised training is delivered consistently when and where it is needed.

Having it online also offers the advantage of digital record keeping for operator compliance and provision of digital certificates for employees. Once completed, participants receive a certificate that will be recognised throughout the hospitality sector. It can be stored along with other training achievements on participants’ individual digital Knowledge Passport, which follows them as they progress through their career.

Hospitality NZ firmly believes that to achieve standardisation, this course should be a recognised national minimum standard, and the Association intends to push for that.

Find out more at www.hospitality. org.nz/s/knowledge-hub

Free to Hospitality New Zealand Members. To access the course and learn more visit hospitality.org.nz/s/knowledge-hub or call 0800 500 503 The Voice of Hospitality